KCBT chief address confusion over trading hours

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, U.S. — With change come growing pains, Jeffrey Borchardt, president and chief executive officer of the Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBT), told World Grain’s sister publication Milling and Baking News about the debut of expanded electronic trading hours for the wheat futures markets.

Some confusion from country interests has surfaced as market participants awaited some tweaking in the way final prices are communicated.

Borchardt said quote providers used by the KCBT and the other major grain exchanges may have to make adjustments in what prices they post so buyers and sellers are able to accurately calculate cash grain prices after the close of pit trading at 1:15 p.m. Central Time (CT). Electronic trading now continues for another 45 minutes, until 2 p.m.

On May 21, the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), the KCBT and the Minneapolis Grain Exchange (MGEX) debuted longer electronic trading hours, from 5 p.m. CT until 2 p.m. CT, Sunday through Friday. At the same time, the traditional 9:30 a.m.-1:15 p.m. CT open-outcry trading continues, and the settlement price from pit trading continues to be posted as the “official” close.

The KCBT has proposed to its quote provider, Chicago-based Barchart.com, Inc., that it start showing the last trade of the day as well as the settlement price of open-outcry trading, 45 minutes earlier. Borchardt expected that the last trade, made at 2 p.m. CT, would be available for view to market participants “in the next day or two.”

He said he had received a number of calls from the country on the afternoon of May 21 from cash-grain interests that were confused about which futures price to use in calculating prices.

“There was about a nickel’s difference between the settlement at 1:15 p.m. and the last trade of the session,” he said. At first, there was uncertainty about what price to key the basis from, but he said he thinks the adjustment to include a “last price” of the trading day will solve any problems.